information technology articles

by m. werneburg, 1998

I've been working with information technologies since 1994. Over the years I've made some observations and learned some valuable techniques. I'd like to share these with you.

opinion: the IT field

I've spent nearly fourteen years in the IT field, so far. I've seen a lot of bizarre and surprising things over the years.

hardening UNIX

Well over ten years ago, I wrote this humble article on hardening UNIX (specifically, Solaris). It's been a perennial favourite ever since, so I've kept it around.

owning a Mac computer

I finally bought a Mac this summer. Why not, I've already tried just about everything else. Here's what I think after two months of use.

a proposed anti-spam routine for websites

I've invented a routine for preventing spam to a website's comments field. It does so without those annoying and feeble 'captcha' routines, and without the need for login.

résumé for michael werneburg

My working career, spanning back to 1994.

using actionmailer via SSL with joyent

How to use actionmailer in your ruby app from your (OSX) Mac with Joyent when your ISP blocks port 25. Yes, a techie how-to.

configuring nginx on joyent

Joyent is a leading web hosting company that's great for rails/ruby-based sites. We use nginx as a front end on our Joyent node. Here's how.

responding to an information security incident

This is a document that outlines how to respond to an information security incident. Quite a lot of preparation is included.

request tracker tips

I've recorded my struggles with Request Tracker so you don't have to.

a simple css menu (that works in IE!)

I've figured out how to make a menu appear on a web page in a way that allows mouseover highlighting. The icing on the cake was getting it working on Internet Explorer back to 5.5.

tools for the PMP exam

Some tools I've put together for anyone pursuing PMP certification.